Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology.
Using a process model of emotion, a distinction between antecedent-focused and response-focused emotion regulation is proposed. To test this distinction, 120 participants were shown a disgusting film while their experiential, behavioral, and physiological responses were recorded. Participants were told to either (a) think about the film in such a way that they would feel nothing (reappraisal, a form of antecedent-focused emotion regulation), (b) behave in such a way that someone watching them would not know they were feeling anything (suppression, a form of response-focused emotion regulation), or (c) watch the film (a control condition). Compared with the control condition, both reappraisal and suppression were effective in reducing emotion-expressive behavior. However, reappraisal decreased disgust experience, whereas suppression increased sympathetic activation. These results suggest that these 2 emotion regulatory processes may have different adaptive consequences.
Gross
J J
JJ
Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-2130, USA. james@psych.stanford.edu
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health